Academic Decathalon, Aca Deca, is a class and a competition where the students study a given topic for the year. This year’s topic was the 1960’s.

P K Simmons is the coach and the instructor for Aca Deca. When he started teaching, the principal asked him if he wanted to teach it even though he didn’t know anything about it, but he accepted the job and he is still teaching the class today.

“I didn’t even know what it was then, but I figured if the boss wanted me to do it I would say yes. So then I became the Aca Deca coach. There was no class so it was just an after school activity, but everybody else has a class and all the other schools were competing so, I asked for a class and they gave me a class then the class has gone on from then,” Simmons said.

Something about this class is that there are ten different subjects which combine and be the decathlon and these subjects are used for the competitions. The different categories include art, language and literature, science, history, a selected novel, economics, music and math.

The students learn those subjects in class and also in practices after school on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for 45 minutes.

“Academic Decathlon practices are really fun we do them twice a week in Simmons room and he always brings snacks to kind of keep it fun so it’s not just people studying but it’s good. We do stations; one station we work on giving speeches, another for learning economics and the other one would be for reviewing art study guides or others,”senior Ellie Foral said.

To be on the team, a couple of students are chosen and those people can go compete out of school with other students and other schools. Being on the team can benefit stuents because they can put their scores or experiences of how they did on their college resumes. The classes and practices also prepares the students for college speeches and other things that are needed to get into a college.

“They learn lots of really great skills especially ones that come to practice they learn how to do college interviews because that is one of our events and they learn how to do improv two speeches prepared speeches.” Simmons said. “They also just learn a lot because you know we read so much, so you just learn a lot about a lot of different things. Against competing forces you have to have a little bit of a higher level academically, so it’s good for them and it also looks good on your college resume because registrars at colleges know what AcaDeca is. So when you are in AcaDeca, right away they think you’re really great.”

The competitions are quiet and everyone is focused with answering the questions being asked. They do two scrimmages each year. One in Nov. and another in Dec.

The regional competitions were hosted this year by East on January 19. The AcaDeca teams did well enough to advance to state. State was hosted at the University of Nebraska at Omaha this year.  AcaDeca members say can be on the team or class if they put effort in their studies and work outside school.

“Yes, it is open to anybody. We especially need people with B and C average because the vast majority have A averagse. But it doesn’t really matter as long as you study hard and are willing to put in the work you can make the team,” sophomore Sara Vance said.